Shanghai Is China’s Latest Virus Hotspot to Test Covid Zero
Shanghai Is China’s Latest Virus Hotspot to Test Covid Zero Push
(Bloomberg) -- Shanghai reported a surge in Covid-19 infections after expanding its mass testing program, sparking concern the virus may be more widespread in the financial center than previously thought and adding to challenges facing China’s Covid Zero strategy.
The city saw a record 758 new cases on Sunday, including 734 asymptomatic patients, with the daily caseload doubling in two days, according to the National Health Commission.
The flareup in Shanghai came after authorities expanded testing to more residents to root out silent transmission chains. More than 200 cases are centered around the Pudong district, home to a bevy of domestic and international financial institutions and the Shanghai Stock Exchange. The city last week ruled out imposing a broad lockdown, but officials said Monday that some areas will remain locked down for further testing.
Jilin province still has the most cases in China’s worst wave since the early days of the pandemic in Wuhan, with the country’s first virus deaths since January 2021 reported there over the weekend. The northeastern province that borders Russia saw more than 2,000 daily infections as its roughly 24 million residents mark one week in lockdown. Nationwide, there were 4,331 new cases.
China’s growing outbreak is presenting an unprecedented challenge to its zero-tolerance approach, which typically relies on mass testing and hardcore lockdowns. While that’s been effective in stamping out outbreaks in numerous cities, the spread of the highly transmissible omicron variant to some of the country’s most economically significant hubs mean authorities face a complicated task to contain case numbers without imposing serious disruptions.
The country shall aim to achieve the most benefit with minimal costs by utilizing a targeted containment approach, Liang Wannian, head of China’s Covid response expert team, said during an interview with state broadcaster CCTV. The omicron variant is more transmissible and is more harmful to humans than influenza, he said.
President Xi Jinping last week pledged to reduce the economic impact of his Covid-fighting measures, signaling a shift in a longstanding strategy that has minimized fatalities but weighed heavily on the world’s second-largest economy.
Jilin imposed even more stringent restrictions. The local government banned all residents in the region -- already sealed off from the rest of the country -- from leaving their homes for four days effective Monday. All grocery stores and supermarkets in residential compounds have been closed.
Two senior officials in the province were fired following the deaths of two people who had severe underlying conditions.
Meanwhile, China’s tech hub Shenzhen lifted its week-long lockdown while keeping some restrictions in place, as the municipal government said the spread of the virus is coming under control. Government agencies and companies will resume normal operations and production, and bus and subway services will also restart.
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., the flagship unit of Foxconn Technology Group, said that it had resumed normal operations and production at its main campuses in the city. Unimicron Technology and Oppo also said they had resumed operations.
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With assistance from Bloomberg